Transport Department

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6911, 17 May 1929, Page 6

Transport Department

'J'HE Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Labour, ?.lines and Transport, is bearing his full share of administrative work in the new Cabinet. Transport just now is making particular demands upon his time, the establishment of a new department of State proving a more exacting task than he or any of his colleagues had anticipated. He expects to have the preliminary work far enough advanced in a few weeks time to call the members of the Advisory Council together and to avail himself of their assistance. Meanwhile he is being regaled by complaints concerning heavy charges and limited facilities to which he has not yet had an opportunity to give attention; but which he knows to be in some cases largely overdrawn. The Minister has high hopes of the potentialities of the Department. lie believes that it will improve many of the existing conditions and ultimately bring about a much better understanding between the users of the roads and the authorities than that existing at the present time.

Deer in New Zealand numbered about 300,000 head in 1022. They have increased greatly since. These deer in 1022 displaced sheep and cattle equivalent to 450,000 head of sheep. Taking the revenue per sheep per annum to bo 10s. (a low value), we have a direct loss due to deer of £225,000 per annum. Deer do almost incalculable damage to the indigenous and exotic forests and to some district farm crops. The value of deer to the 'acclimatisation societies averages £1393 per annum at £2 per licenso

The report and accounts of Lever Brothers, one of the largest oi the joint stock companies, having extensive ramifications in all parts of the world, shows that the profit for the year 1928 was £5,274,075, against £5,390,258. After paying preference and preferred ordinary dividends and 5 per cent on the ordinary shares (the same as for 1927), £200,000 is placed to the general reserve, and £160,337, (or £55,542 more than last year) is carried forward.

The Manawatu hunt will moot tomorrow at Mr. T. R. Taylor s Oaklauds,” Kiwitea, instead of at Mr. G-. Perry’s as previously notified. The combined ages of four men pro sent at the installation of Mr »• 1Po«ter as Mayor of Lyttelton last week amounted to 336 years. The average was S 4 years. Rural delivery fees received by the Hamilton postal district for the quarter ended March 31 totalled £1349 ISs 2d being the second highest for the Dominion. Christchurch held the post of honour with £1657; Palmerston North was third with £973 7s Sd. To take eight rainbow trout of an average weight of 91b in one day s fishing is an achievement of which any angler might bo proud. Dr t. JRavndr, fishing at Lake Okataina at Rotorua took 721 b. of trout. The catch is a record one for any one days tsuing this season. On 13th. instant, in the Supreme Court in Chambers at Wellington, on the application of the Solicitor to the Public Trust Office, His Honour, Mr. Justice MacGregor, granted probate ot the will of Michael Enright, late ot Palmerston North, settler, to the public trustee (the executor named in the will). When two Opunake district residents felled a 40ft. dead rimu on the farm recently, they made an unusual covcry. In a- hollow in the trunk at tho top of the tree was a bird’s nest lined with scraps of paper, labels, and a 10s note. The note was only slightly frayed at the edges, and is still a legal tender. The flooding of our universities with students was referred to as a possible danger by Dr. Lawson, of Otago University, speaking at tho graduation ceremony at the Canterbury College, last week. We were in somewhat the same position, he said, as was Germany, where there was a tendency to “schoolify” tho whole of life. It had been said that one half of the nation was occupied in teaching the other half. This was a bacl state of affairs. A girl of 16, Violet Dixon, was riding on the “chairoplanc” at Thames on Saturday afternoon (states the Auckland ‘Sun’), and while the machine was travelling round at a fair speed she slipped from her seat and was sent flying through the ail - . Miss Dixon struck a poster hoarding with considerable force, breaking a leg in two places and lacerating the flesh. She was taken to the hospital. This is the second accident that has occurred at the “chairoplane.” The previous week a youth named Gilmore was struck on the head by a chair, and the wound necessitated five stitches being inserted. New Zealand Shipping Company’s £lO shares, with £8 paid up, once changed hands at 2s tid. This fact was recalled by Mr C. M. Turrell, act-ing-Dominion superintendent of the company, wflien .speaking to a gathering on board the new motor liner Rangitikei at Wellington. Mr Turrell said the collapse to which he had referred came about because it was thought that the company would have to go into liquidation and the other £2 would be called in. He, unfortunately, had no half-crowns to spare then. (Laughter.) It was then that Sir Edwyn Dawes — he was Mr Dawes at that time—came on tho scene. The management was transferred to London, Mr Dawes raised £400,000 on debentures at 4 per cent., paid off the builders’ bills, which were carrying S per cent., built new ships with about treble capacity, sold the old ships, went in for rigid economy, and pulled tdic company through. Fires lit 258 years ago are still burning in a pottery at the corner of New King’s road and Burlington road, Fulham, S.W. They were started with tinder and flint in 1671 by John Dwight, the Fulham potter, whose wares arc now eagerly sought after. His sons and daughters who carried on the business kept them going. Then the pottery passed by marriage to the family of White, and when the last White died, in 1862, Messrs. MTntosh and Clements look it over. After two years they sold it to a Mr Bailey, and in 1889 it passed into the possession of Mr G. \Y. Chen via. who is now the governing director of the private company which still carries on the business. The lulns of to-day are little different from those used by John Dwight in the seventeenth century. In a special advertisement on the Feilding page, Simsons announce that they have still “got the blues.” In another column the Victoria Insurance Company, Limited, notify clients and others that they have appointed Mr P. S. Larcomb chief agent for Palmerston North for the conduct of tho business of the company. The Victoria Insurance Company was estab lished in 1549, and it undertakes all classes of insurances, including fire, accident, motor cars, plate glass and employers’ indemnity.